Posted on 07/31/2005 1:32:27 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Exactly - his comments are chiefly sour grapes.
Pratchett's a good authoir but needs to stop following the same format every book becasue he never abandons the same structure which means that even the most amusing characters can quickly become jaded.His best stuff is when he was fresh or when he switches genre and tests himself like GOod Omens with Neil Gaiman or Strata.
Hmm, I agree - best of his recent books was "Night Watch" and that was... different, somehow. It had a lot more depth and meaning to it, instead of just poking fun at a new target. I think he needs to grow as a writer a bit more. But of course I read every new Discworld as it comes out.
Woo-hoo! Just checked Amazon; Pratchett's next book, "Thud!" comes out in October and it's a Watch book, which are always my favorites.
Hey, Terry-it's called the marketplace. The last time I checked, Dean Koontz wasn't complaining about the success of Stephen King.
Granny Weatherwax is my favorite Pratchett character. But I want to be Nanny when I grow up. :-)
I dunno about serious fantasy, but IMO there's a fair amount of meat to what he writes. I loved "Maskerade" for exactly that reason - Granny's stopping a sword cut with her hand, and the results thereof, are one of my favorite bits in all of fiction.
Nice comments. I have been intrigued by the same thing myself. Her style of writing has gradually become more adult as have the story lines. Her books are 'growing up' with her target audience.
It will be interesting to see where she takes it now. Probably in ten years time we'll start to hear comments like 'I remember back when Harry Potter was for kids'.
If those young actors that play Harry, Hermione and Ron are lucky and play their cards right they could have jobs in film for the rest of their lives. It makes me wonder though if we'll ever have to see love scenes in the future Potter films...
Isn't it about time for Rincewind and The Luggage to show up again?
Very tacky by Terry. Never read him, but less inclined to after the big whine.
Now I, on the other hand, have a right to whine, I can't even get a agent.
However, I choose not to, but to appreciate all the good writers... there are so many bad ones.
later
Her book being a best seller does not take away from you. In fact the kids that buy her book may one day buy yours.
One word: Xanth.
Sounds like jealousy.
In 1977, I'll bet People magazine was full of articles about how George Lucas had reinvented Science Fiction, reinvigorating a staid and stodgy genre, blah, blah, blah. And I'm sure that if Asimov ever said, "nu, that's not quite right," the blogosphere would have said, "Sour grapes! Say it ain't so, Ike!"
And what's the number one rule for the crossbow, Detritus?
When Mr. Safety Catch is not engaged, Mr. Crossbow is not our friend.
I'd give just about anything to make that rumor come true.
Nah. Until I read the article, I thought that I might agree.
Pratchett pokes a little gentle fun at Rowlings' silly statement the she had not thought of HP as fantasy while she was writing it. And at the Beebs' stupid claim that fantasy had been stuck in a rut, where "an idealised, romanticised, pseudofeudal world, where knights and ladies morris-dance to Greensleeves".
Pratchett's novels are some of my favorites. At his best, he is a satirist as skilled as Twain or Swift.
I've always thought that Rowling got her ideas about the school (moving stairways, self-guarding library books, magic wand characteristics, etc) from Pratchett's work. I can see why he'd be somewhat irritated. Pratchett's books I very enjoyable. I'm sorry that they don't get the attention that Rowling's have as well.
Wow, that displays quite a breathtaking ignorance of the state of the Fantasy genre pre-Rowling.
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